Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-08-13

with uS from the army and navy etores,
congratulating ourselves enormously on
our good fortune in having loaded and
provisioned the boat on the previous day
before the hurricane destroyed the dhow.
BY the time that we had finished our meal
CTR clothes were dry, and we FASTENED to
get into them, feeling not a little refreshed.
Indeed, with the exception of WEAKNESS
and a few bruises, none of us were the
worse for our terrifying adventure, which
had been fatal 10 all our companions.
Leo, it is true, had been half drowned, but
that is no great matter to q vigorous young
athlete Of five-and-twenty.
After breakfast we startei TO look about
us. We were on n strip of dry land about
two hundred yards broad by five hundred
long, bordered on one side by the river and
on the other three by endless dc5olats
sWan.ps, that stretched as far ~ the eye
could reach. This strip of land was raised
about twenty-five feet above the level of
the surrounding swamps and the river
level; indeed, it had every appearance OF
having been made by the hand of man.
This place has been u wharf" said Leo.
dog.aaticaliy.
NONSENSE / answered. "WhH would
be fool enough Ia build a wharf i'm the
middle of these dreadful marshes in a
country inhabited by savages, that is, if it
is inhabited at all?"
perhaps it was not always marsh, and
perhaps the people were not always saw
age" he said, dryly, looking down the
steep bank, for we were standing by the
river. Look there" he went on, pointing
TO a spot where the hurricane OF the previ-
Gus night had torn up one cf the magnolia
trees, which had grown Oh the extreme
edge of the bank just where it sloped down
to the water, by the roots, that had lifted
a large cake Of earth with them. "Is not
that stone work? III not, it is very like it,"
NONSENSE | said again, and we clam
bered down to the spot, and got between
the upturned roots II the II
"Well?" he said.
But | did not answer this time. I only
whistled. For there, laid bare by the re-
moval of the earth, was an undoubted fac
ing Of solid stone laid in large blocks and
bound together with brown cement, SO
hard that / could make no impression on
it with the. file in my shooting knife. Nor
was this all; seeing something projecting
through the soil at the bottom Of the barred
patch of walling, | removed the loose earth
in my hands, and revealed a huge stone
ttt% O. toh VI ~ ~ YIN NaAhh bccaH
three inches thick. This fairly staggered
me.
Looks rather like a wharf where good
sized vessels have been m0ored, does it not,
Uncle Horace?" said Master Leo, with an
excited grin.
| tried To say NONSENSE again, but the
word stuck in my t~hroat-the ring spoke
for itself. In some past age vessels had
been moored there, and this stone wall
was undoubtedly the remains of n solidly
constructed wharf. Probably the city to
which it had belonged lay buried beneath
the swamp behind it.
Begins to look rs though there wero
something in the story after all, Uncle
Horace" said the Xultant Leo; and re-
flecting on the mysterious negro's head
and equally mysterious stone~work, / made
no direct reply.
"A country like Africa" I said, 'Js sure
to be full of the relics of long dead and for.
gotten civilizations. Nobody knows tho
age Of the Egyptian civilization, and very
likely il had offshoots. Then there were
the Babylonians, and the Phpnicians, and
the Persians, and all manner Of pee pie, all
more or less civilized, TO say nothing, Of the
Jews whom everybody wants nowad~
1t is possible that they, or any n of ~
may have lad colonies or trading stations
about here. Remember those buried Per-
sian cities hat the consul showed us at Kill
wa" Near Kilwa, on the east coast OF AT
RIGA, about four hundred miles south OF
Zanzibar, is a cliff which has been recently
washed by the waves. On the top OF this
cliff are Persian tombs known to be at
least seven centuries old by the dates still
legible on them. Beneath these tombs Isl
layer OF debris representing a city. Fur
Their down the cliff is a second layer repre-
senting an older city, and further down
yet a third layer, the remains OF q still
more ancient city Of vast and unknown an
tiquity. Beneath the bottom city were
found some specimens Of glazed earthen-
ware, such as are occasionally to be met
with on that coast to this day. / believe
that they are now in the possession of Sir
John Kirk,-Editor.)
"Quite so,'' said Leo; but that is not
what you said before"
"Well, what is to be done now9" l asked,
turning the conversation.
AS no answer was forthcoming we pro-
ceeded to the edge of the swamp, and
looked over it. II was apparently bound
less, and vast focks Of every sort Of water
fowl came flying from its recesses till it
was sometimes difficult TO see the sky.
Now that the sun was getting high, itdrew
thin, sickly looking clouds of poisonous
vapor from the surface Of the marsh and
from the scummy pools of stagnant water.
1.-TWO thing are clear to me" | said, adj
dressing my three companions, who stared
at this spectacle in dismay, first: that we
can't go across there q pointed to the
swamp, and secondly, that If we stop
here we shall certainly die of fever"
"That is us clear rs "a hay-stack," said
Job.
Every well, then; there are two nlterna,
tives before us. One is TO 'bout-ship, and
try and run for some port in the whale
boat, which would be a sufIicienl risky
proceeding, and the other to sail or tow on
up the river, IND see where we come o."
81 don't know what you are going to do"
said Leo, setting his mouth, "but / am go
ing up that river"
Job turned up the whites of his eyes and
groaned, and the Arab murmured "AllahP'
and groaned also. AS for me, | remarked
sweetly, that Us we seemed to be between
the devil and the deep sea, IL did not much
matter where we went. But in reality I
was as anxious to proceed as Leo. The
colossal negro's head and the stone wharf
had excited my curiosity to an extent OF